


Enjoy the Silence

by Trash



Category: Linkin Park
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-12
Updated: 2013-11-12
Packaged: 2018-01-01 07:30:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1042069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trash/pseuds/Trash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just because he's quiet doesn't mean he has nothing to say.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Enjoy the Silence

Rob is the most stereotypical of the band. He knows this and Brad knows this. Brad doesn’t mind though, he likes that he can understand Rob. He can remember trying to understand Chester, he thinks it goes without saying that he didn’t succeed. He can vaguely remember trying to understand Joe when they first met; it doesn’t surprise him that he didn’t get very far.

Rob is quiet, which means he can watch, which means he has a lot of knowledge. Just because he’s quiet doesn’t mean he has nothing to say and Brad knows this, so he listens.

He listened when Rob told him why Mike was acting like a hormonal teenager. Turns out he and Chester split up. Truth be told; Brad didn’t even know they were together in the first place.

He listened when Rob told him that Dave had a crush on Mike. Brad asked him if he was the only straight one in the band. He heard Rob crying quietly in his bunk that night.

Chester is slamming cupboard doors the day Rob runs away.

Brad rubs his eyes and pulls back the divider between the front of the bus and the bunks. Chester swears and throws a tin of fruit at the wall.

“Good morning to you too.” Brad says, remembering what Rob said about Mike and Chester and their less than easy break up.

Chester doesn’t reply, he simply drops a tin of pineapple rings on the floor and slams the cupboard door.

“Where’s Rob?” He asks. Brad stares at him blankly and Chester rolls his eyes. “Where. Is.”

“I heard you, dickweed. I don’t know where he is.” He runs a hand through his hair “Why?”

“He’s the only one of you fuckers with per diems left.” Chester mutters, absently kicking the tin of pineapple rings.

“Where’s yours?”

“I spent it on the hotel bar yesterday and since we were so rude to the staff Bob’s cut them today. He said we can either eat the crap we bought or starve and that it’ll serve us all right.”

Brad furrows his brow. “Isn’t that like, against the law or something?”

Chester just shrugs and kicks the tin under the table. “Who knows. I mean, it’s not like we don’t have enough food. It’s just…..who the fuck wants fruit? Fucking cherries dude. Cherries and pineapples.”

Brad half smiles and goes back into the bunk section. He can see, from his vantage point, that the backroom is empty and Rob’s bunk curtain is pulled back revealing an un-made bed. “The hell?” He murmurs.

Rob never goes anywhere without telling someone. Rob never goes anywhere for no reason.

Brad tells Chester and Chester swears with more passion than usual. Brad doesn’t know if it’s because a band is fucked without a drummer or because his friend is missing. Only Mike understands Chester, but they don’t talk much any more. There’s only Rob who can get Mike to even be in the same room as Chester at the moment. They call Mike the glue, but there’s always Rob hiding in the background ready to put things back together if he needs to. Brad never realised just how dysfunctional the band is.

When Bob gets back on the bus Brad makes Chester pretend he’s sick. Whilst Chester is dry retching over the kitchen sink, Brad sneaks off of the bus and runs away from the truck stop.

There’s a park nearby. Brad remembers them driving passed it. If Rob is anywhere, he’ll be in the park. He probably thinks that nobody would ever look there, but Brad listened when Rob told him that a park is the best place to be when you feel stressed.

Rob is lying on a bench under a tree when Brad finds him. He has his eyes closed so he doesn’t notice his friend standing in front of him. He isn’t asleep yet, when Brad puts his hand lightly on the drummer’s shoulder he starts and sits up.

He doesn’t say anything and Brad sits beside him, knowing that Rob is trying to come up with a reason that Brad would come after him.

“Joe was being a dick.” Brad says, “You’re the only one who knows how to get him to shut up.” He’s lying and they both know it. But when Brad leans in and brushes his lips ever-so-gently against Rob’s, it doesn’t matter anymore.

Brad gets to his feet, “Coming?” He asks, smiling as Rob nods.

They walk back to bus in silence and Brad thinks, maybe Rob isn’t so easy to understand after all.


End file.
